My Elvis Presley Blog

Sometimes we forget that aspect of Elvis that was not music, movies, sex, drugs and rock & roll.  I mean that which was pure and true fashion trend setting.  Elvis wore his hair long before everyone else thought it was fashionable.  Elvis wore pink when most men wouldn’t be caught dead in it.  Pink was in fact, Elvis’s favorite color.  Elvis wore silks, velour, handmade and custom shirts before anyone else thought to do it.  Elvis wore big belts, jewellery normally not seen on a man but on Elvis…well he made anything look good. Unfortunately, a lot of the pictures that were taken of Elvis in the early days were black and white and although colorized more recently (see picture H below as an example), we are still not getting the true picture of the flash and style that was Elvis in the 50’s.

So it’s only appropriate and way overdue that EPE would set up a tribute to the fashion trend setter that Elvis was.  You can read the full story here at elvis.com but before you go, take a look at the pictures below.  If you’re an Elvis Insider you can vote for the picture to represent this fashionable tribute and the first group here is the gallery of pictures eligible to vote for. My choice will be C but it’s not the greatest version of that picture so I have provided you with a much better copy of it from my own collection below the EPE picture. (scroll down)

This is Elvis at Graceland when it was empty prior to moving in and he was there to plan the interior decorating. Folks, this is the spring of 1957 and if you didn’t know better, you just could not guess that this outfit was worn by the sexiest man ever over 52 years ago.  I love this picture, it is one of my all time favorites.     

Here are some more shots from my collection of what I feel is indisputable proof that not only did Elvis send men’s fashions spinning off into an entirely new universe but that he alone could wear absolutely anything he wanted to and get away with it.  What would make most men look feminine and ridiculous would make Elvis look deliciously masculine. 

These two are also my all time favorite pictures of Elvis and don’t miss the pink socks eh?  He was probably wearing pink shorts too.

And then of course there’s that infamous black leather outfit that he was so worried was going to make him look silly on national TV back in 1968.  Silly? Not a chance.  Hot? Definitely and in more ways then one. To this day I don’t know how he did that show under those hot lights with that outfit on.  But did he make it look good? Absolutely!!!

Again, here’s the link to the story at www.elvis.com

"(619) 239-KING" and “Elvis is Everywhere” by Mojo Nixon

Hello again, dear Readers.  I am back with your 2nd instalment of the songs written about Elvis.  If you remember from my first post in this series, was it just yesterday? Yes indeed it was. Anyway, I discovered while reading yet another biography about Elvis that there are over 232 songs written and recorded about Elvis.  I was enchanted to know this because who else can you name that has had that many songs written about them besides God, Jesus, Mother Mary and several other religious figures? 

I promised you that I would research these songs and present them to you. My first post included probably the most famous tune ever written and recorded about Elvis, “Black Velvet”. Today I thought I’d cover two more songs that really should put a smile on your face and I’m pretty sure even Elvis would have gotten a kick out of them. 

Mojo Nixon was born exactly 20 days before me on August 2, 1957 in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was originally named Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr. and I can’t seem to find an explanation for the name change but no matter, Mojo suits him much better as you’ll soon see.

Mojo is an irreverent artist taking shots at just about anybody he wants to. Some of his song titles include “Don Henley Must Die”, “Jesus at McDonalds” and “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child”.  You get the idea?  However with the two songs he recorded about Elvis, it seems that Mojo actually really loves Elvis and for that, I will forgive him for using so many really ugly and bad Elvis impersonators in his videos.  Of note: in the “619-239-KING” video there is actually one impersonator that shows up early in the video who actually does resemble Elvis as he looked in the mid-70’s. Mojo is quoted as saying that his personal religious trinity was Presley, Foghorn Leghorn and Otis Campbell.

If you’re interested in reading more about Mojo Nixon, click here.  Meanwhile, enjoy these two videos:

(619) 239-KING Embedding is disabled for this one but you should be able to watch it at YouTube by clicking on the link

So I’m reading the Jerry Hopkins Elvis biography, the latest edition that has his two Elvis bio’s combined.  The first book he wrote before Elvis died and it’s the only biography that I’m aware of that was written while Elvis was alive besides the one book that shall remain unnamed on this blog that may or may not have killed him and was written by his two “good friends” Red & Sonny West as told to a hack gossip columnist. The 2nd book was written after Elvis left us.

But I digress. So I’m reading this biography and really enjoying it although much of what is in it I already know.  But it seems when you are in love with the King, you can read the same things from different sources and get a whole different perspective.  And Hopkins writes well which helps a lot.

Anyway I encountered a section in the book where the author starts to list all the songs that had been written “about” Elvis.  My eyebrows started to raise up and I immediately got a lot more interested because I only ever knew one song that was written about Elvis and that’s the one included here sung by Alannah Myles. 

Now folks, I have to be honest here. Up until a few months ago, I didn’t even know this song WAS about Elvis but of course, as soon as I heard that and remembered the words, (which I have memorized because it used to be one of my all time favorite songs) I thumped my forehead as if I was in a V8 commercial because OF COURSE it’s about Elvis! Who else could it be about you stupid twit?! 

Yes sometimes I am unusually harsh on myself. 

Tonight I thought I’d research this topic a wee bit more and just see, out of curiosity, how many songs were actually credited with being “about” Elvis.  Can you guess?  Would you think maybe 20 or 30?  Does that seem like a lot?  How about over 200?  That’s right, there are over 200 songs that are credited with being about Elvis!  And many more that refer to him in more minor ways. 

So I have just created another “series” of Elvis pieces I’m going to be doing on the Songs that were Written about Elvis.  Black Velvet of course will start out the series because it’s the one I’m most familiar with as are most of my readers, I’m sure. 

Black Velvet was made into a huge hit by 3 time Juno award winning Canadian artist Alannah Myles back in 1989. She was also awarded a Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance for Black Velvet. Written by Canadian musicians David Tyson and Christopher Ward, it became a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1990 and reached number one on the Album Rock Tracks chart, as well as number one in Canada and number two in the UK Singles Chart. In 1990, country music artist Robin Lee reached number 12 on the U.S. country singles charts with a cover version.

In 1989, you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing it playing and in fact, the song was named the most played song on radio for 1989.  Alannah had such a sexy, bluesy voice that was perfect for this song.  I never heard the Robin Lee version of it and don’t really need to.  Like Elvis himself, the original song by Alannah was such a classic that anything after would seem like cheap karaoke. (I hate karaoke and I hate Elvis impersonators too.) 

There are some interesting theories about the Black Velvet title.  I prefer to think of it as a very apt description of Elvis’s style, his look and his voice.  Something awfully sexy and dangerous about black velvet.  However it’s possible that it refers to the Elvis on Black Velvet paintings  you can still find in some people’s homes or, and I think this is a pretty cool idea too, it refers to the hair dye Elvis always used which was called “Sullivan’s Black Velvet”.

Either way, black was one of Elvis’s favorite colors so the song title is a perfect fit, no matter the reason.   Here then are the lyrics:

Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell
Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high
Mama’s dancin’ with baby on her shoulder
The sun is settin’ like molasses in the sky
The boy could sing, knew how to move, everything
Always wanting more, he’d leave you longing for

Chorus:
Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet with that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please

Up in Memphis the music’s like a heatwave
White lightening, bound to drive you wild
Mama’s baby’s in the heart of every school girl
"Love me tender" leaves ‘em cryin’ in the aisle
The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true
Always wanting more, he’d leave you longing for

Repeat chorus:

Every word of every song that he sang was for you 

In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon, what could
you do?

I hope you all enjoy this new series I’m beginning here and that you’ll stay tuned for more as I bring you all the songs that were written about Elvis, The King of Rock and Roll.

GDC-GameDevCo Ltd Announces Release of Elvis Presley DVD Board Game

It’s a not a real board game in the sense that we all think of board games but a DVD with a board game on it. Still that may be just semantics if you’re a diehard Elvis fan who simply must have everything ever made with Elvis’s name on it.  I used to be that way but not so much anymore.  The music for sure.  The other stuff that comes out of EPE Merchandising can be pretty cheesy and I’m not sure even Elvis would approve of some of it.  I mean, Pez Dispenser?  Bobble Heads?  You’d almost think that old carnie Parker was still hawking his goods around town.

However I think Elvis probably would get a kick out of a game about him that tests your knowledge of his life,  his music and his career. I admit, I am curious. On the other hand, I would be interested to know just how much information is in a game that only takes 30-40 mins for 4 people to play.  If it was the calibre of Trivial Pursuit which could take hours to complete if you’re with equally knowledgeable people, you’d hope it would take longer to play.

Nonetheless, it is $39.99US at Shopelvis so not a cheap board game (or DVD with a board game on it) either.  The picture makes it look like you’re getting a boxed game like you would if you bought a real board game but it IS a DVD, so you know that for your $40.00US,  you are only getting a DVD sized package. 

And that gives me the perfect opportunity to go into the rant that I’ve been holding back since last week:

So last week I wanted to buy my three Elvis Calendars that I always buy every year for my office (last month, this month and next month) from Shopelvis.com. After a nice discount for purchasing over $30.00 (35.97 to be exact), I clicked on the check out button and imagine my surprise when the total invoice came to $115.79!!! 

Over $70.00 to ship three calendars to Canada???  Click, cancel!  I had just previously ordered a print from the US for a friend and had it delivered via UPS no less for $28.00 so don’t tell me that it cost $70.00 to ship a package the size of a calendar!  Oh did I mention that if you purchased enough goods over a certain amount you got free shipping?  So those of us who aren’t willing to buy a large amount are going to pay for those who do? 

I wrote them a pretty sharply worded email and told them where to stuff their $115.00 calendars as well as letting them know I could just make my own damned calendars with the images of Elvis obtained freely anywhere on the internet. I received a reply back from them with instructions to call them about it.  I haven’t done that yet and probably won’t.  I’m just warning my readers that if you buy from Shopelvis, be very careful how much shipping charges are tacked on at the end.  There are lots of places to buy Elvis stuff, Shopelvis isn’t the only market on the street.

Having said that, this board game (or the DVD with a board game on it) is exclusive to Shopelvis and you probably won’t get it anywhere else except for possibly Ebay after some folks have managed to buy an inventory of them.  Will keep you posted if I hear any news or reviews about it.

I’ve noticed recently that several people have registered as users on this blog.  Since I am pretty new to all the blogging in’s and out’s I didn’t pay too much attention to it. Tonight after some mysterious activity on my blog and some research on Google about allowing users to register, I have been advised that it is safer and more secure to not allow registration by users. 

So I am turning off that option on this blog and deleting those folks who have registered to date. Please do not take offense, I just want to keep my data and this blog secure and without interference from morons with nothing better to do but to destroy hard work.  I expect that if you truly wish to read my Elvis Presley blog, you will have already signed up using the RSS button at the top right hand side.  This will notify you right away when new posts appear. And the comments section, as always, is open to anyone who would be kind enough to offer up their thoughts. 

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Okay updating the update: October 13th, 2009 – So I’m reading the Jerry Hopkins biography and as fate would have it I encountered the bit today where he comments that Elvis did in fact dye his hair black prior to induction into the army. So it would appear that I was wrong about that.  Still, buying a dead man’s hair is pretty creepy. Authentic or not

Further to my previous post about the “hair auction” I am now convinced that this batch of hair is not Elvis’s.  See the picture below that I came across today.  If I am correct, Elvis never died his hair until after he came back from Germany so when he got it cut to go into the army, it should have been the same dirty blond that it was naturally.  This is definitely not dirty blonde hair but is quite dark. 

I loved the quote on the site where I found this picture: “…fetch the $115,000 another thatch of hair got at auction a few years ago. Well, that and the fact that anybody who’d pay that much for a dead man’s hair likely has serious social issues.”  You got that right!

Full Story Here

And more here 

That’s odd. I’ve read well over a dozen books about Elvis’s personal life and not once was this Gary Pepper ever mentioned.  I may have to go back and do a quick reference check but I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard that name before. Just because somebody was a president of one of Elvis’s thousand or so fan clubs, doesn’t make him a close personal friend.  If that was the case, then I could claim that I too, was a close personal friend of Elvis because, damn it, nobody loves him more then I do, I can guarantee you that!

Nor have I ever heard that Elvis’s hair was collected for memorabilia purposes when he had it cut for the induction into the army. Having said that, I wouldn’t put it past that old shikester Parker in thinking of it at the time.  

What I’d really like to know is how would someone go about proving the authenticity of said clump of hair.  Has it been tested and DNA certified?  Compared to what exactly?  I heard somewhere that the medical examiners’ office in Memphis kept Elvis’s brain after his death and that it still resides in a jar in a locked vault somewhere however I don’t give much credence to that.  But it seems to me that would be the only way to prove this “clump of hair” is actually Elvis’s hair.  And how gross is it to imagine paying $115,000 for a clump of hair who’s owner isn’t actually known. Ewwww!

Really, I just think the whole thing is kind of creepy. What do you think?